Wednesday 29 February 2012

Contemporary Quilt Group - Monoprinting.


At the January meeting of our Contemporary Quilt Group the technique we experimented with was monoprinting.
Now, I had bad memories of this technique from City & Guilds - mainly because I always seemed to end up with dull, drab samples that didn't inspire me.
This time I was determined to put a more modern twist on the technique.

 This is the very small quilt I made from one of my samples - it is about 6 inches square.
 Here are my samples on the design wall - I used Valentine's Day as a theme.
I am quite looking forward to making these up into a quilt or two. I am still in the planning stages.
I actually enjoyed monoprinting this time round!

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Contemporary Quilt Group - Using Markal Paintsticks

At our Contemporary Quilt group meeting in November we experimented with Markal Paintsticks, Inktense Pencils, wax crayons and ways of colouring fabric.

I was lucky enough to have Lesley on my table who was very generous with her Markal sticks, stencils and rubbing mats and I was able to make lots of samples.

Well, as we all know samples are not much good unless they are made up into quilts so this is the little quilt I made from some of my samples which is destined to become an AAQI donated quilt.  
 It is 12 x 9 inches and is made from recycled white cotton which has been coloured using a rubbing plate and Markal sticks (Thanks Lesley!)
 I cut up the coloured areas and added white areas to break it up.
It was then sandwiched into a little quilt.
Then I machine quilted it, following the design into the white areas.
The pink dots in the white areas are fabric paint.



  This second piece is also coloured with Markal Sticks using a stencil on top. When the stencil is removed it leaves the white areas which I have decided to embellish with hand embroidery which is very slow but enjoyable to do.
In January our topic was monoprinting and I will share my samples from that workshop soon.
Our next meeting is this Saturday and I am teaching a workshop on Liberated Piecing - really looking forward to it. Come join us if you are free on Saturday!